Chaos in China
Enraged Chinese-Americans call for war against Japan (March, 1934)
The Chinese Civil War and ensuing Soviet-Japanese Invasion sparked a massive scramble both in China and outside of it. As wave after wave of Soviet and Japanese troops swarmed China's borders, the various warlords formed an alliance with the forces of Xu Shichang to resist the foreign invaders. Sun Yat-Sen on the other hand, unofficially aligned with the Japanese in return for the promise of a larger Chinese buffer state and free reign to deal with ethnic minorities as he saw fit. The Soviets attracted support from ethnic Mongols in Inner Mongolia, who were tempted by the prospect of reuniting with their ethnic countrymen and getting back at the Chinese for years of cultural oppression. Making matters even more confused, the United States, Germany, the Tripartite Empire, Britain, and France soon all got involved in varying capacities.
When the Japanese and Soviets invaded at the same time, the world at first thought that it was just a bizarre coincidence, or perhaps an aggressive reaction on the part of one side towards the imperialism of the other. Instead, on March 22nd, two weeks after the invasion, the world was stunned to see pictures and newsreels of Soviets and Japanese shaking hands on the border between Soviet Manchuria and Japanese Manchuria. Military bands honored their co-belligerents, and friendly contests and toasts abounded. The world was stunned: the Japanese and the Soviets had teamed up to carve China apart. Then, reactions poured in. The Germans and the Tripartite Empire offered measured denouncements and announced that troops from German Indochina would be sent to European concessions to protect the lives and property of their citizens and their allies'. Britain and France had the opposite reaction, publicly praising the Japanese for "doing what is necessary to restore order on the Yellow Continent." Shortly afterwards, negotiations between the three powers would begin. The Americans were by far the most furious. WTR took to the airwaves to denounce in the strongest possible terms "
the violent and aggressive expansionism of Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union, whose sick fantasies of dominance will kill millions of innocent Chinese." On March 23rd, both houses of Congress unanimously passed resolutions condemning Japan and the USSR. In the streets of American Hong Kong and the West Coast, tens of thousands of Chinese-Americans would take to the streets calling for war against Japan and the Soviets. In San Francisco, mounted police had to break up large scuffles between Japanese and Chinese Americans on the 24th, and the Governor threatened to send in the National Guard. After a few weeks of deliberation, the United States announced embargoes against Japan and the Soviet Union. These were very limited in the beginning, but as horror stories continued to emerge out of China, they would gradually grow. That being said, there would be no official military action. The bulk of the American people might have been disgusted by the events in China, but most were much more focused on getting help to end the Depression rather than waging an expensive crusade on a foreign continent. WTR was himself ready and willing, but he obeyed the will of the people. However, what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them....
By May of 1934, grizzled veterans of the Second Mexican War had begun showing up in the camps of Republican forces. They brought with them years of experience, and crates of surplus weapons and supplies. Although it wasn't enough to train and equip a large number of the truly huge Republican Army, it was enough to create three crack divisions of Chinese Minutemen, as they became known. These elite forces were led by American commanders, and became the terror of the Japanese and Soviets. Supplementing these crack units, some 5,000 Chinese-Americans who somehow acquired military training and weapons appeared to bolster the Republican forces. These men were invaluable to the Chinese cause, and slowed down a once lightning quick Soviet and Japanese advance. They were also useful in maintaining discipline when the ancient Xu Shichang died in July, to soon be replaced by renowned general and Republican Chiang Kai-Shek. Beyond this, many starving Chinese were kept from dying by huge Red Cross donations by the American people, many of whom donated in spite of their own personal hardships. The Americans did everything short of actually fighting a war to help the Chinese, and their efforts would never be forgotten by the Chinese people, especially when compared to the apathy of the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to halt the invaders, especially given the treachery of Sun Yat-Sen. While a number of his men defected to the Republic over his cooperation with the Japanese, he still commanded the second largest force of armed Chinese in the country. When the Japanese annexed most of Manchuria, they let the fanatic Han supremacists stay behind while others marched ahead aiding the Japanese. The fanatics in Manchuria were given free reign, and many took the opportunity to vent their rage at centuries of Manchu domination on the locals. Tens of thousands of Manchurians were killed, tortured, or displaced, and thousands more were enslaved by the invaders and their puppets. A few thousand were able to escape to the relative safety of Soviet Manchuria, where they were often conscripted as cannon fodder against the Chinese. Given how many of them were radicalized by the violence they had endured, this was a fairly easy sell, and the "Manchurian Brigade" would be one of the most fanatical units fielded by the Soviets in their war against China. With such violence and concentrated military might being brought to the fore, nothing short of direct American intervention would turn the tide. Since this was not yet forthcoming, the Japanese and Soviets had a relative field day.
Once Manchuria was secured, the co-belligrents continued to cooperate. The 98,000 Soviet troops in Manchuria swung West alongside their Japanese allies and marched into Inner Mongolia, joined by a separate Soviet army of 177,000 from the North. Inner Mongolia, along with Xinjiang, were lightly defended and fairly primitive. While the native people put up a fierce resistance, in the face of a relatively modernized and utterly ruthless enemy, they stood no chance. Inner Mongolia fell in December of 1934, with intermittent resistance into mid 1935. Xinjiang fell in February, 1935, with resistance continuing into 1936. Starting in June of 1935, the Soviets waged war in Tibet to establish a puppet state. Native resistance was unusually fierce, and the mountainous terrain difficult, but the Soviets soldiered on. The new Red Airforce began deploying airships and planes to scout and bomb mountain hideouts, and Moscow began a strategy of food warfare. They seized most of the nation's food, and would control distribution. This would have the effect of starving disloyal areas, and it's estimated some 178,000 people starved due to this policy. Despite the fearsome effort put up by the Soviets, Tibet wouldn't be truly pacified until 1941. Further North, Soviet forces were slowed down as they punched into Gansu and Qinghai. Being more centrally located, Republican forces had more of a presence in these regions as opposed to the fringes. The presence of half a division of Chinese Minutemen in the region didn't help things. However, as the Chinese were increasingly absorbed by the genocidal Japanese offensive along the much more densely populated coast, resources began to be recalled from the region as the Soviets continued to hammer away. By Christmas of 1937, resistance in these regions began to collapse. The Soviets would take full control by March of 1938, at which point they stopped their offensive outside of the ongoing war in Tibet. They were content to sit back and consolidate control over their Pact promised lands while selling Japan the oil and steel she desperately needed.
Japan's offensive against the rich and highly populated coast was much more slow-going. In response, the Japanese got ugly. Thousands of gas shells were deployed against Beijing in December of 1934, after the Japanese advance stalled outside the city. When the Japanese did finally break through in January, the Rape of Beijing occurred as angry soldiers inflicted unimaginable atrocities on the city. The foreign legations remained the only safe areas in the whole city. A squad of Japanese soldiers was shot and killed by two American businessmen after they wandered into the American Concession pursuing a young woman they intended to rape. The incident inflamed both sides, but did not result in concrete action by either. In March of 1935, all foreigners and their servants were ordered to leave Beijing or lose legal protection. Ships loaded up the Westerners and their "servants" many of whom were Chinese that had Western families sponsor their escape. Many of these refugees would wind up in Hong Kong or California, although a surprisingly large number also fled to Budapest. The Japanese continued their relentless advance along the Eastern provinces, arriving in Nanjing by February, 1938. Atrocities similar, but not as large, as what occurred in Beijing became par for the course, outraging the world. Despite fearsome resistance, the fanatical Japanese war machine, kept fairly well supplied by the Soviets, ground the country down. It wasn't until the larger Second World War broke out that the Japanese advance would be slowed, then gradually reversed.
Now seems as good a time as any to discuss the methods by which the Soviets and Japanese ruled their Chinese empires. The Japanese quickly established a brutal variety of colonial rule in their provinces. Farms, mines, and other valuable assets were seized and sold at fire sale prices to Japanese zaibatsu. They would then modernize these assets and scale them up for the most extraction possible, send over Japanese managers and their families, and essentially enslave the Chinese to work in them. The lives of workers were of little import, as even with the destruction caused by war and genocide, there were enough Chinese that workers were easily replaceable. Japanese colonists and officers quickly formed a ruling class in these areas, and instituted a variety of racist laws. All Chinese were compelled to kowtow to any Japanese they encountered, regardless of age or sex. Segregated living areas were established. Chinese men were forbidden from interacting with Japanese women, even as Chinese women were rounded up like cattle for use as military sex slaves. Chinese children were compelled to learn Japanese, and could be beaten for speaking Chinese in public. Chinese artifacts were pillaged en masse and sent to Japan. It was a remarkably brutal and efficient machine of plunder and destruction. The Soviets took a somewhat different route. All farms and mines were nationalized, and in the case of farms, collectivized. After a couple years of disruption, these regions were integrated fairly well into the Soviet system. Many anticipated the creation of new SSRs, or perhaps the absorption of some territories into existing SSRs. This did not happen, as China remained under military rule until the conclusion of the Second World War, at which point Stalin created a new governing arrangement for the Union as a whole. Although Soviet rule was totalitarian, it was thankfully not as racist. Race based genocide didn't really occur aside from isolated incidents in China perpetrated by the Manchurian Brigade. However, Soviet rule was not racially egalitarian. In Soviet Europe, there were thousands of unmarried Russian men who had been recently deported from Poland, Ukraine, Crimea, Finland, and the United Baltic Duchy in a fit of anti-Soviet hysteria. Stalin sent them to the recently annexed Chinese territories as managers and policemen, supplemented by Russian party members. The authorities began a propaganda campaign alleging that "
So-called ethnic purity is an invention of the capitalist bourgeoisie." These unmarried male colonists were encouraged to marry native women. Female colonists, on the other hand, were generally forbidden from marrying native men, although exceptions occured. Russian culture was generally pushed onto the natives with the notable exception of cuisine. In this realm, China influenced the Soviets more than vice versa. All in all, Soviet rule was less brutal, and would prove much more durable.
Piled up corpses from the Ravaging of Nanking, the second deadliest atrocity committed by Japan in China (1938)
Newsreel footage of the Japanese advance (1937)
A Soviet soldier in Inner Mongolia (1935)
Soviet soldiers pose in Gansu (1936)